AAK opens yet another
Customer Innovation Center
AAK USA has recently completed the construction of a new Customer Innovation
Center at its manufacturing site in Louisville, Kentucky, making it AAK’s twelfth in
its global network of such centers. This latest addition, measuring over 2,000 square
feet, is comprised of a state-of-the-art bakery lab, an analytical lab, and a process
pilot plant.
Earlier this year, AAK USA opened its first Customer
Innovation Center in Edison, New Jersey, featuring both a
bakery application lab and a chocolate and confectionery lab.
The Louisville Customer Innovation Center represents the
second in a network of laboratories that are slated to open to
serve customers across the United States and Canada.
“The new labs and pilot plant will allow us to further our
co-development approach and will be a great benefit to
AAK’s customers”, said Terry Thomas, President AAK USA.
“This facility will be instrumental in taking our Customer
Co-Development model to our bakery customers in the
Southeast and Midwest of the United States. Our Customer
Innovation team in Louisville is now equipped with the best
tools to deliver value-adding solutions for our customers’
toughest application challenges.”
In addition to the new bakery application lab, the analytical
lab and the pilot plant offer new tools to expedite product
development. The analytical lab will have bench-scale
bleaching, hydrogenation, interesterification, and deodorization
capabilities while the new pilot plant will feature a pilot
votator. These tools coupled with the application capabilities
and a local customer innovation team will offer bakery
customers exciting new opportunities.
“The application labs, alongside our new analytical labs
and our process pilot plant will truly enable improved speed
to market, reducing the amount of time needed to develop
samples, test in application, and scale-up”, said Dr. James S.
Jones who leads the AAK USA Customer Innovation team as
Vice President. “Our Customer Innovation application team
is very excited to be able to work closer with customers,
fulfilling our co-development promise.”
Application labs at AAK’s location in Richmond, California
are scheduled to open next year.